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Crossing European Borders in the Long 19th Century

Travelers, Migrants, Specialists, and Commodities

3/6/9 ECTS
Seminar:  MA alt, MEK Mittel- und Osteuropa als kultureller Raum // MICS  Culture, History and Societies in Central and Eastern Europe /  Migration, Ethnicity, Ethnocentrism // MASS Migration, Ethnicity, Ethnocentrism // KGMOE:  Räume – Grenzen – Metropole // MES
MA neu, MEK Mittel- und Osteuropa als kultureller Raum // // MASS Migration, Ethnicity, Ethnocentrism // KGMOE:  Räume – Grenzen – Metropole // MES
Block, Mo: 16.15-17.45 Uhr, Di: 09.15-10.45 Uhr, Ort: AM 203, Veranstaltungsbeginn: 25.05.2015

This course will focus on the movement of people and goods across European borders in the long nineteenth century. An emphasis will be on the Polish lands.
In the first phase we will discuss the relevant concepts of border studies and mobility research in the social sciences. In the second phase we will look at five major aspects of cross-border movements of the time. Travelers between the three partitions of Poland not only fostered economic exchange in the official and unofficial spheres, but also aided in the growing political unity of the country. Economic exchange gained an ever-increasing global significance with cities such as Königsberg facilitating large-scale international trade. Emigrants from the Russian Empire had to master complicated journeys, passing border controls and making use of different means of transportation to finally reach the ships bound for the Americas. Leisure travelers, as part of an emerging European tourist class, crisscrossed a continent divided by exclusive national movements. International expert networks developed by means of study trips, international organizations, conferences, and the World Expositions.
In the last section we will identify the major changes in the longue durée and have an more comprehensive outlook on the situation in contemporary Europe.
Literatur: Eric D. Weitz and Omer Bartov, ed. Shatterzones of Empires. Coexistence and Violence in the German, Habsburg, Russian, and Ottoman Borderlands. Bloomington, Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2013; Being Elsewhere. Tourism, Consumer Culture, and Identity in Modern Europe and North America, edited by Shelley Baranowski and Ellen Furlough. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2001; The Ashgate Research Companion to Border Studies, ed. by Doris Wastl-Walter, Farnham, Burlington: Ashgate, 2011.
Teilnahmevoraussetzungen: Good oral and written command of English.
Hinweise zum Blockseminar: Blockphase: montags und dienstags vom 25. Mai bis 1. Juli. The course is part of the Center for Interdisciplinary Polish Studies’ summer school but open to Viadrina students.
Leistungsnachweis: Presentation, in-class test, and essay
Sprache: English